Therefore, whoever desires (Al-Izzah) honor, power and glory in this
world and the next, let him be obedient towards Allah (SWT).
Imam Ali (as) says, that he is proud that Allah (SWT) is his lord and
that he is Allah's servant.
As Muslims we are proud of our identity, heritage and tradition.
Because we Muslims take pride in keeping our homes, gardens clean, our
places of worship appealing both to the young and old. We Muslims take
pride in respecting parents, elders, assisting neighbors, helping poor
by giving charity. We Muslim Women take pride in observing Hijab
(Islamic dress).
"Pride, the result of not remembering our status in relationship to
our Creator, can take various forms. In each of these it is an attempt
to be god."
The main push behind pride and prejudice is nothing other than the
human being thinking himself to be "god" and that he feels he is
better than others; however, if we keep the relationship between
ourselves and our Creator in mind, and that He is the only one
"entitled" to 'pride', then we bring ourselves back "down to earth"
and appreciate that we are all from the same source, and that even
though we have differences mostly based on incidental issues, the only
source of being "better" than one another (which too cannot be fully
judged) is our awareness, consciousness, and acceptance of God and all
that He gives to us.
Imam Ali (as) says: I wonder at the arrogance of a haughty and vain
person. Yesterday he was only a drop of semen and tomorrow he will
turn into a corpse. Also, it is astonishing if son of Adam is proud,
when his beginning is a sperm and his end is a decaying corpse (dead
body).
The arrogant and proud should recognize and realize his reality: his
origin is a dirty sperm and his end is stinky carrion. Between these
two, man is weak and feeble. Hunger and thirst exhaust him, ailment
and sickness overcome him, poverty and harm afflict him, and death and
wear will inevitably befall him. Man cannot provide benefits and
cannot save himself from misfortunes.
Overconfidence is a bad thing:
Confidence is a great thing. It allows us to get past our doubts and
take action. So why is slightly too much of it so bad? Take a look at
the example of Azazeel.
His name was Azazeel. He is also known as Iblees. He used to pray a
lot and even used to give lectures to the angels. One day there was a
notice in the heavens which said that someone was going to be ordered
out of the heavens. All the angels were worried because they thought
it might be one of them. They all went to Jibreel (Gabriel) who was
one of the most important angels to ask him, whether he could do
anything. Jibreel (Gabriel) said he too was worried because it might
be himself. Jibreel (Gabriel) suggested that they go to Azazeel
because he was very clever.
Azazeel told them not to worry at all, he would pray to Allah (SWT)
for all of them. He forgot himself thinking he was the best and it
could never be him. As a result of overconfidence, he became the
cursed Satan and he was ordered out of heaven.
Imam Moosa Kazim (as)says: "O Son! Don't delay in offering your
prayers. Nor should you be overconfident of the acceptance of your
prayers and feel proud of your efforts at piety. We cannot offer
prayers and obedience to Allah commensurate with His Blessings."
Summary, as human beings and believers, we need to ensure that we do
not repeat the sin which resulted in the fall of Satan - we need to
treat all of the children of Adam as human beings and not be
judgmental of things such as skin color, tribal affiliations,
language, place of birth, economic worth, social status, or even
religion, as these are all merely ways for us to "know the another"
rather than being means of shunning one another. After all, did Imam
Ali (as) not say that, "People are of two types - they are either your
brothers in faith or your equals in humanity."
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